May is National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month. Sedgwick County’s Division of Health Family Planning Clinic (SCDOH-FP) provides family planning services to low-income clients, as well as baseline screening for breast and cervical cancer. While this is a critical time to consider teen pregnancy and how it negatively impacts individuals and the community as a whole, this is a constant focal point for the Division of Health.
Teen pregnancies and unintended pregnancies have been linked to premature birth, low birth weight, and increased infant mortality rates due to socioeconomic disadvantage. Sedgwick County is working to reduce these numbers in the community through increased awareness of family planning services and encouraging the use of more effective contraceptive methods.
The disparities are stark: birth rates for African-American and Hispanic teens are about double that of Caucasian teens. In 2011, approximately 553,000 pregnancies occurred among teen women ages 15-19 in the U.S.1 Teen child bearing cost U.S. taxpayers at least $9.4 billion in 2010, according to an analysis by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.2
From 2011 to 2015 the teen pregnancy rate in Sedgwick County was reduced from 22.9 to 14.1 pregnancies per 1000 females age 15 to 17.3 By 2018, the Division of Health’s goal is to reduce the teen pregnancy rate to less than 13 pregnancies per 1000 females age 15 to 17 seen in Family Planning Clinic.
For more information about family planning services in Sedgwick County, please visit http://sedgwickcounty.org/healthdept/familyplanning.asp, Sedgwick County Division of Health Main Clinic at 2716 W. Central, or call 316-660-7300.
Sources:
1. https://www.guttmacher.org/report/us-teen-pregnancy-trends-2011
2. https://thenationalcampaign.org/press-release/teen-childbearing-cost-taxpayers-94-
billion-2010
3. http://www.kdheks.gov/hci/teenpreg.html